Greats of Australian golf such as Peter Senior, Peter Lonard, Paul Gow and Randall Vines teed it up at Wynnum, largely to pay respect to one of the PGA of Australia’s finest contributors who passed away last year aged 84.

A field of 60 took to the course where King served as Head Professional for many years, he, Bren Alman and Charlie Earp the founding fathers of what would become known as Queensland’s Troppo Tour.

It was there where Elliott first came across King and was honoured to be the first winner of the trophy bearing his name.

“I’ve known Paul since 1986 when I met him here,” said Elliott.

“He was just a fantastic person for golf. He did so much for the game and we wouldn’t be playing this event for the money we’re playing for if it wasn’t for Paul back in the early days.”

Playing alongside Carl Smedley and the in-form Brad Burns, Elliott didn’t fancy his chances of sharing in much of the $30,000 prizemoney on offer early in his round.

After a birdie on his opening hole – the par-5 second – Elliott dropped shots at both three and five to drop off the heady pace set by his playing partners.

“They were both firing up early,” Elliott said of Smedley and Burns.

“They were 4-under and 3-under and I was playing a bit scrappy.

“I was back at 1-over and I don’t know what happened. I just made a few birdies, they made a few mistakes, made a few more birdies coming in and birdied the last.

“I was a bit surprised that 3-under won because it wasn’t that hard out there. I’m surprised that someone like Pete Senior or one of those guys didn’t shoot 6 or 7-under.”

Elliott birdied two of his final four holes to post 3-under 67, one clear of Lonard (68), Peter Woodward (68), Adam Le Vesconte (68), David Fearns (68) and Richard Backwell (68).

Winner of the 1995 Players Championship and South Australian Open on the PGA Tour of Australasia, Elliott had been without a victory on the SParms PGA Legends Tour since 2021, admitting he was pleased to break through after some recent near misses.

“With a few holes to go I was a bit nervy because the last couple of pro-ams I’ve been leading with a couple of holes to go and let it go,” he revealed.

“It was nice to actually hole a long putt on the last instead of three-putting like I did last week.”

Next stop on the SParms PGA Legends Tour is the Queensland Senior Foursomes Championship at Kooralbyn Valley Golf Course on Monday, August 7.

Final scores and prizemoney